The game of bingo is a lottery game of chance which reportedly is played by more players in the United States than any other gambling game. The game originated over 200 years ago, and is played in many variations and under several names.
Bingo is typically played on a bingo card which contains twenty-five numbered squares laid out in a 5.times.5 grid. Each of the five vertical rows is centered under the letters B-I-N-G-O; seventy-five or ninety numbers are used, with numbers 1-15 being assigned to the first or "B" row, 16-30 to the "I" row, etc. The central square on the bingo card is a free number and is covered by a marker at the beginning of the game.
Winning numbers are selected from the group 1-75 or 1-90 by any of many random selection means. As each winning number is drawn, the player scans the card to determine if the number appears on his card, and covers the number if it does appear. The first player to achieve five markers in a row on the card is declared a winner.
Historically, bingo has been played as a parlor game, in movie theaters, for church and charity fundraisers, and as a gambling game in casinos. In recent years, in order to relieve the boredom of playing the same type of game over and over again, and to add variety and interest to the game, numerous variations of bingo have been developed. Many of these variations involve the achievement of goals different from the conventional one of five linear markers on the face of a card. For example, games can be played in which the winning configuration on the card resembles various letters of the alphabet, such as C, U, H, K, M, L, X, and T. Other variations include achievement of shapes resembling a diamond, picture frame, chair, bow tie, "happy face", anchor, and "jailhouse window" (three vertical rows). Another popular variation, which is often used to end an evening of bingo, requires the winner to completely cover all of the squares on the card; this version is known by numerous names including "jackpot", "coverall", and "blackout". In this version, numbers are called until a winner has been declared, with the payout to the winner decreasing with the total number of numbers called before the winning card is filled.
A type of coverall or blackout bingo game currently popular is known as "Bonanza Bingo". At the beginning of a bingo parlor session, fifty numbers are called and posted on the master scoreboard during the bingo session. Cards may be purchased during the session. During the last game of the evening, prize money for the Bonanza Bingo game will be calculated depending on the number of players (the house retaining a fixed percentage). If no winners appear on the first fifty numbers, the drawing continues for the 51st, 52nd, 53rd, etc. number until a winner is selected. After a winner appears, the game is over. If more than one winner exists in the first 50 numbers, the winner who appears in the smallest number of balls drawn prevails.
One of the limitations of Bonanza Bingo and other bingo games is that a large bingo hall is required for play of the game. In general, bingo games now played are relatively time, labor, and space intensive. Numerous players sit in a large space during the play of the game, and numbers for each separate game are drawn individually over a period of time until a winner occurs. The continuous draw of numbers require that at least one employee and a supervisor be involved with the draw at all times.
Need exists for a bingo-type game which need not be played by numerous players simultaneously in a large area, and which is less labor-intensive than existing games. In addition, there is a need for casino games in which large payouts can be made to players, and in which the win/lose result is determined quickly. In recent years, the advent of progressive jackpots for slot machines, in which a player can place a $1 bet in a machine and win many hundreds of thousands of dollars, has proven extremely popular. Large payouts have not been an incident of most bingo games.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a bingo game in which a player can acquire a bingo card, compare the card with predrawn numbers, and determine immediately if a prize has been won. It is another object of the invention to provide a "coverall" or "blackout" game which people can play at any time during a fixed time period, and for which the payoff for each winner is at least 1,000 times the cost of the card. These and other objects of the invention are provided by the improved bingo game described in detail herein.